This web log serves as a forum for news, views and discussion about all things related to the science of food: food chemistry, microbiology, engineering, process technology, and nutrition. Also discussed are issues related to food safety, GMO foods, organic foods, health and wellness, and news about what's going on in the PSU Food Science Department.

July 22, 2015

Sound is the forgotten flavor sense

Manipulating sound can transform our experience of food and drink, making stale potato chips taste fresh, adding the sensation of cream to black coffee, or boosting the savory, peaty notes in whiskey. Composers have written music to go with feasts and banquets since antiquity—indeed, in at a particularly spectacular dinner hosted by Duke Philip of Burgundy in 1454, twenty-eight musicians were hidden inside an immense pie, beginning to play as the crust was opened. Today, however, most chefs and restaurants fail to consider the sonic aspects of eating and drinking. [MORE]